Get ready to dig in!

Our garden volunteership invites you into an Edible Schoolyard NYC garden once or twice a week for an entire school semester or summer. Working under the supervision of the Garden Manager and Assistant Garden Manager, volunteers help with garden maintenance, cultivate food grown for classes, and model positive behavior in the teaching garden.

As a semester-long volunteer you can develop and share skills related to growing organic food in an urban environment, working alongside equally enthusiastic advocates of edible education. All levels of gardeners are welcome! Celebrate the conclusion of your semester with a fun, volunteer appreciation potluck. (Please note this is not a teaching position.)

Apply to be a volunteer

At P.S. 216 in Gravesend, Brooklyn

At P.S. 216, fall garden volunteers begin in September and help out once or twice a week for twelve weeks, through November. Spring volunteers work weekly as well, from March through June. Summer volunteers begin in June and continue through August.

As a garden volunteer you can choose to serve either on Tuesdays or Fridays or both — from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.

P.S. 216 Garden Responsibilities:

• Participate in composting, mulching, irrigation, planting, weeding, and other essential garden tasks
• Assist in maintenance of garden facilities and equipment
• Harvest in preparation for a weekly farmstand that takes place on Friday afternoons.

At P.S. 7 Samuel Stern in East Harlem

In East Harlem, the garden volunteership is a weekly commitment every Wednesday from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. The fall garden volunteer season runs from September through mid-November, the spring season is from April to June, and the summer season is July to August.

P.S. 7 Garden Responsibilities:

• Build the garden: light carpentry, painting, installing and troubleshooting irrigation
• Help with seasonal gardening tasks: watering, fertilizing, weeding, managing pests, staking, pruning, trimming, deadheading
• Conduct routine garden maintenance and cleanup: caring for tools and equipment, organizing storage areas and supplies, keeping the garden tidy and lesson-ready
• Care for street trees: building tree guards, improving soil, planting groundcovers and bulbs, watering

At both P.S. 216 and P.S. 7, our plants and our kids rely on our volunteers to thrive! We count on you not to miss more than three sessions in a given semester.